One of five pathfinder local authorities, the Council is coordinating the development of a South Lanarkshire Community Plan which will provide a basis for more integrated service delivery by the Council and its public sector partners.

As part of the process of producing it, the Council has launched a consultative document “Stronger Together” which sets out proposals for the Community Plan. The Council is inviting all interested parties to put forward their views on the document and closing date for comments is April 23, 1999.

The launch of the consultative draft is one of a series of events on community planning the Council has been involved in over the past seven months.

Councillor Tom McCabe, leader of South Lanarkshire Council and one of the main speakers at the event, said: “Community Planning is a long term approach to promoting the economic, social and environmental well-being of an area through partnership - an approach which has already been highly successful in Hamilton with the Hamilton Ahead Initiative and a number of other joint initiatives throughout the area.

“We in South Lanarkshire are delighted to have been chosen as one of five pathfinder areas in Scotland who will work with the public and private sectors, the community and the voluntary sector to produce a plan. This plan will identify what the partners and the community feel are the main priorities that need to be tackled in South Lanarkshire and how we go about doing that effectively and efficiently.

“By working together, the partners can make better use of scarce resources, can prevent wasteful duplication of services and can provide improved services to local people.”

The other core partners in the project are Lanarkshire Development Agency, Scottish Homes, Strathclyde Police, and Lanarkshire and Greater Glasgow Health Boards. Community involvement will be critical to its success.

FACTFILE:

Recent partnership initiatives have included:

• the Hamilton Ahead Initiative - the regeneration of Hamilton town centre
• Lanarkshire New Deal Partnership - helping the unemployed access jobs and training
• South Lanarkshire Rural Partnership - tackling problems in rural areas
• Cambuslang Regeneration Partnership - tackling the problems of exclusion in Cambuslang

For information on the consultative draft, contact Jim McCaffer on 01698 453813/453818.

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